Tag Archives: JuliaSiemon

CAN YOU DESCRIBE YOUR COMPANY?
We strive to achieve beauty through design with a primary focus on 3D motion content creation. We help clients solve creative challenges and constantly evolve by staying ahead of technology trends. I am currently working on developing content using Oculus VR.
.WHAT’S YOUR JOB TITLE?
A Creative (Designer, Animator and Director)

WHAT DOES THAT ENTAIL?
Everything. I wear many hats at my job, whether it is art direction, character animation or pitching. Being a creative means you have to be able to adapt to the needs of the project and pick up where someone else left off.

WHAT WOULD SURPRISE PEOPLE THE MOST ABOUT WHAT FALLS UNDER THAT TITLE?
Budgets. Having to always be mindful of budget and time. Also snacks. My snack game is the best in town.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE PART OF THE JOB?
Constantly discovering new ways to achieve our creative goals. Whether it’s through the use of a new technology or inspiration. Randomly seeing my work on TV, a subway or on Instagram is also pretty awesome.

WHAT’S YOUR LEAST FAVORITE?
Dealing with finances, writing up invoices and collecting. Having to “hound” clients to collect is never fun, but unfortunately frequently comes with the territory.

WHAT IS YOUR MOST PRODUCTIVE TIME OF THE DAY?
I find my most productive times for creating are between 10am and 2pm, and from 5pm to 7pm. I would love to nap between 3-4pm. I think that would expand my productive time to 9pm. Just that one-hour nap would do wonders. I guess my favorite time of day is when I get to climb back into bed.

IF YOU DIDN’T HAVE THIS JOB, WHAT WOULD YOU BE DOING INSTEAD?
I teach at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, so I would either teach full time and/or design video games. If it wasn’t design related, I would work with plants, helping people set up and manage gardens in their backyards to produce enough fresh vegetables and herbs for their families. Or I’d run a travel blog.

HOW EARLY ON DID YOU KNOW THIS WOULD BE YOUR PATH?
At age three, I drew a baby pram with one continuous stroke. From that moment on my mother knew I was to become an artist, so my art education began early on. However, I always gravitated towards new technology. By combining my visual talent with new media I was able to find a career path that is always surprising and rewarding.

CAN YOU NAME SOME RECENT PROJECTS YOU HAVE WORKED ON?
Over the summer I worked with creative production studio Hey Beautiful Jerk on three Yahoo Fantasy Football spots. It is the type of project I love working — it included a mixture of the absurd and comic elements where the client goes for something out of their comfort zone and I get to play with Maxon Cinema 4D.

The spots each included a purple hue over everything to tie in the Yahoo brand color. I worked on several backgrounds and most of the character animation. While I did various backdrops and animations for all three spots, my favorite is called Glory Year. For this piece I created, textured and animated the floating brains and the futuristic city. I had a very limited time to create a The Fifth Element-inspired cityscape in Cinema 4D, and relied heavily on ready made models I found online, combining and adjusting them to get the desired look. I also added a sky highway to help illustrate the future. A lot of work for a half a second.

WHAT IS THE PROJECT THAT YOU ARE MOST PROUD OF? WHAT SOFTWARE DID YOU RELY ON?
I would have to say the CCTV-9 IDs I did with branding and design studio Trollbäck+Company a few years back. We did six IDs for the CCTV9 documentary channel promoting their new cube logo. I designed and animated CCTV ID Electronica, which was meant to reflect the energy of Chinese cities. The spots won an international BDA award that year. Cinema 4D was the perfect tool for this project; it allowed me to explore multiple creative directions fast and easy. I relied heavily on the Mograph module in Cinema 4D to give the CCTV cube the vibrancy and spirit of a Chinese metropolis.

NAME THREE PIECES OF TECHNOLOGY YOU CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT.
My camera, Google maps/satellites and my Wacom tablet.

WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS DO YOU FOLLOW?
Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.

DO YOU LISTEN TO MUSIC WHILE YOU WORK? IF SO, WHAT KIND?
It varies greatly depending on my mood. I listen to anything from Leonard Cohen and Imogen Heap to Tool and Smashing Pumpkins, with a bit of Zedd/Deadmau5 thrown in.

WHAT DO YOU DO TO DE-STRESS FROM IT ALL?
I’ve been running a mini farm out in New Jersey for four years now; it helps me to clear my mind and stay close to nature and our roots as an agrarian society. I’ve also gotten into food preservation. Both have been very therapeutic. However, when the stress is too great even for dehydrated kale chips and apples I try to take time off to travel.